The Huston Family: Focus on the Family

On Wednesday we drove about an hour to get to Colorado Springs to visit Focus on the Family's Headquarters. It was a beautiful campus. We went on two tours. One was of their Administration Building which took about 45 minutes. The other one was of their Operations Building and that took about 15 minutes. On that tour we saw a video of how they ship out all of their materials to people around the world and got to take pictures of their warehouse. We ate lunch in Whit's End, which is a restaurant connected to an incredible play area for kids where you can also see where they tape Adventures in Odyssey (see picture #5). Here are some things that we learned about this ministry:

1. They are debt free (they no longer pay for their facility) so they have more money to invest in the ministry. Their ministry is now world-wide, but they have to edit out the gospel message to some of the countries that they air in because they don't want to hear the gospel, just the "good moral teaching on parenting and marriage." (see the globe picture below where they put push-pins where their ministry is reaching the world)

2. Dr. Dobson is no longer the President. I believe that he's on the Board of Directors, but he stepped down so that he could travel more to speak around the world. (We also found out that Al Mohler is also on the Board of Directors.)

3. In 1996 they had a gunman come into their building and hold 4 employees hostage. What the gunman didn't know, though, was that it was the National Day of Prayer and word quickly spread of the situation and prayer began. At the same time, all 4 of the individuals felt God say to them, "Just get up and walk out, " so they all did at the same time and the gunman didn't even notice that they left! Isn't that awesome! (see picture #1 below of the gun hole in the wall...they left it there to remind them of God's awesome power in protecting the 4 individuals that day).

4. You can sit and watch a taping of Dr. Dobson's broadcasts. Sometimes he asks for questions from the audience, and you could be on the air! He never broadcasts live, though. His shows are heard on the east coast early in the morning so to avoid having to be on the air at 5am, he tapes them earlier. (see picture #4)

5. Any of Dr. Dobson's books (or his wife's) that are sold through Focus on the Family ministry or at the Bookstore on their campus, all of the profit from those goes directly back into the ministry. The Dobson's don't receive any of the money from those resources.

6. Their warehouse is so big that they have their own post office and zip code! (see picture #6)

7. Oh, and did I mention that the whole facility has a GORGEOUS view of the Rockies from out any window?! (see picture #3)